thanks to mike who did so much to organize the event. he is an old friend. thank you, mike. i'm delighted to be here today with corbin. -- david corbin. we have two books that talk about robert byrd from different perspectives. my book is basically about the senate and the last great senate as i refer to it. senator byrd was the majority leader during the period of time i wrote about. it gives you an ensemble sense of how the senate works. the book originated in 2008. i had been in the senate in the 1970s and 1980s. by 2008, i decided the senate had become utterly unrecognizable to me. polarized and paralyzed, really quite dysfunctional. i decided to write a book about the senate when it was great, specifically when i was there. [laughter] when you do something like that, you have a certain risk factor. was it really great? was it only seem great because i was there or because i was young? fortunately, the answer turned out to be, no. i discovered something that was there in plain sight, but had not been noticed. if you googled the words "great senate" you'll find nothing ot